Shift
by xXTheDragonRiderXx
Summary: There was something tangible between them. She didn't know what it was, but between the quiet words and the stillness of the air, she had felt something shift between them. She had felt a connection she had never really felt with him before, and, while a part of her wanted to acknowledge it, the other wanted to never talk about it. For nooneushudknow.
1. Chapter 1

**Shift **by xXTheDragonRiderXx

_"She glanced back down at him, and took his hand. There had been something tangible in that moment, something there between the quiet words and the stillness in the air: a connection with him she had never really felt before. A part of her wanted to acknowledge it, but the other never wanted them to speak about it." –_Excerpt from Behind Every Man's Courage

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><p>She laid awake, watching her breath fog in the cold air of her room, huddling under her blankets in an effort to keep warm. A shiver wracked her spine despite her attempts to stay warm, however, and she pulled the pink covers a little higher and tighter. She wished she had a fireplace right now, not even the little heater she had brought out kept the chill away, and it kept creeping in through the frost covered window.<p>

Yawning, she shifted so that she faced her window, and stretched her hand out toward it. Her pink emblem stood out in stark contrast with her snow-white skin, paled from the cold. She pressed her fingers against the window, but she couldn't feel the cold for some reason. They must have gone numb, despite all the layers and extra blankets.

She shivered again, wrapping her arms around herself tighter. Why was it so cold? This wasn't the North Mountains—it was Magnolia.

There was a banging sound, a soft _pit-pat-pit-pat_tering, but it made her jump nonetheless. She was alone in her house, it was freezing and she probably wouldn't be able to reach her gate keys, let alone use them. In other words, she was the perfect target if some crazy person came in here, wanting vengeance for some scheme they stopped.

_Pit pat pit pat . . . _

Wait, that wasn't a knock, or a bang. It sounded almost like . . .

Hail.

Relaxing back down into her pillows, she laughed at her ridiculous paranoia. No one knew where she lived, except for everyone at the guild . . . some of whom had a tendency to get drunk. Okay so, maybe there was a possibility of her location getting out to bad guys, but she was pretty sure she could find some way to save herself or something.

That was, if she lived through the night without dying of hyperthermia, or frostbite, or something.

Miserably, she shifted out from underneath her covers and reached for a glass of water, only to find that it was beginning to ice over. She stared down at it, blinking a few times.

_What a rotten time for the heat to go out_, she thought, poking at the ice. It broke a little; it wasn't solid then.

Then, suddenly, there was a swishing sound and a blast of cold air came in. Her head whipped around, and she nearly tumbled off her covers in surprise as the dark outline of a masculine figure came into view. She would have thought she was dreaming if not for the way her window was open.

"KYAAAA!" she shrieked, throwing the water across her covers and at the figure. There was a spluttering sound, a very _familiar _spluttering sound, and he dropped into the room and on her bed.

"L-Luce, seriously?"

"Natsu!"

She could imagine his glare on her and she shivered again. Her heart was beating so hard and fast she thought it would burst.

"What are you doing here!?"

"It was colder than usual tonight," he sounded slightly grumpy, though he had no right to be since he was the one who broke into her apartment. A small flame licked up his finger, and she fixatedly stared at it, feeling something akin to hunger erupt in her chest. It was _warmth_, and she was freezing. "I heard your heat wasn't working properly, so I decided to check up on you. Good thing too, it's so cold in here that even _I'm _a little cold. Seriously, why didn't you go to the guild or something?"

Her gaze leapt up to his face, and she ignored the . . . the seductive . . . _thing _on his finger. She would _not _submit to such lowly charms; he would have to _beg _for her forgiveness.

"B-baka," she tried to make her tone harsh, but the violent shiver that wracked her frame ruined it. He frowned a little, and she wrapped her arms around herself, not only to show irritation, but to try to retain some warmth. "I c-can't just go to the g-guild. It's t-too late, and I don't have e-enough warm c-clothes to g-get me there."

He let out a long-suffering sigh that was irritatingly familiar. His hands went out, and she tried to flinch away but he managed to snag one of her arms. Instantly, some part of her melted into the warmth, while he took in a sharp, whistling breath.

(The other part kept screaming about sticking to the plan and making him _beg_.)

"You're freezing!" he sounded surprised.

"Of course I am," she muttered.

"No," now he was frustrated, and suddenly he was pulling her into him. She collided with his _warm _chest, and she let out a little squeak of surprise when his arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her back under the covers of her bed. "Luce, you're _freezing_."

Her breath caught in the back of her throat at the worry and anger in his tone, and when she tried to push herself up, he tightened his arms around her waist. Her hands were splayed across his chest; his _bare _chest.

"I'm staying here until the night is over," his tone was firm. "And I'm probably going to stay into the morning too."

Something small fluttered down on her back, and she stiffened out of surprise before she recognized the familiar weight.

"H-Happy?" she asked, but she didn't shiver from the cold this time. No, she was beginning to feel warmth spread through her again.

"Aye?" the small voice came from somewhere above her, and she smiled a little. A part of her felt guilty for not asking where the cat had been, so she shifted off Natsu's chest. He let out a tiny, draconic growl, and she placed her hand on top of his head to calm him down.

"Happy," she reached around, removing her hand from his head, and pulled the cat over her back and down her stomach. He let out a tiny huff and settled down between them, and she felt a little more at ease that there was something (well, some_one_) was acting as a physical barrier between her and her best friend. The nervous fluttering in her stomach slowly ebbed away.

"Lucy," his voice was different, and she slowly raised her eyes to meet his. They were dark, she had always known that, but there were flecks of green and gold in them as well. He looked different now than he usually did during the day. Instead of brash and loud, he looked contemplative and quiet.

"Hmm?" She stiffened his knees touched hers and his feet brushed against her chilled toes. The fluttering began in her stomach again, but there was a strange pressure in her chest too. It was . . . weird, but a nice kind of weird, she guessed.

"You know you can always come over to our house, if you need us, right?"

She smiled a little, but for some reason, she noticed how he didn't say _home _when he described the place he lived. It probably meant nothing, after all, he probably considered Fairy Tail his home, but it didn't stop her heart from doing a strange little tap-dance.

"I know," she said quietly, letting her fingers trace the hem of his open vest. "Thank you, Natsu."

And, in that moment, there seemed to be something tangible between them. She didn't know what it was, but between the quiet words and the stillness of the cold air, she had felt something _shift _between the two of them. She had felt a connection she had never really felt with him before. A part of her wanted to acknowledge it, but the other wanted to never talk about it: to keep it bottled away, locked up in her chest so that no one could see it.

_(And that was how it began.) _

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><p>At first, he didn't come over to her house very often after that night. Maybe once a month, tops, though he still broke into her apartment at least once a week during the daytime hours. And every time he came over, she Lucy-Kicked him the next morning.<p>

But then after the Phantom Lord incident when she was kidnapped and then tortured, he steadily started to come over more. The first few times, she had been irritated when she found him and Happy drooling on her bed in their sleep, but after she had Lucy-Kicked them out of her room,, he had come over the next day, alone, to explain.

"Happy's been having nightmares," he said, taking a cautious sip out of the tea she had made for both of them as an apology for thinking he was an imposter. In her defense, he had actually knocked on her door like a civilized person for once. "I know you don't like us coming over, but . . ." he looked so lost in that moment, but also, oddly enough, heroic, that she couldn't help but melt a little inside.

She didn't understand why she had put her hand on his shoulder and say it was alright he came over. She supposed she just lost her common sense and her hormones decided to kick in, but that wasn't right—she didn't feel hot, and she knew _exactly _what she had been thinking.

Maybe she would, one day.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: <strong>Written for nooneushudknow. There will be more chapters after this, each between 1000 and 1,500 words long. :) The updates will be random though. The excerpt came from one of my stories, so don't bother looking it up. :P


	2. Chapter 2

**Shift  
><strong>by xXTheDragonRiderXx  
>December 2014<p>

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><p><strong>Thanks for reviewing: <strong>Nnatsuki, SakuraPetal91

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><p><span><strong>Shift<strong>  
>Written by xXTheDragonRiderXx<p>

**[2]**

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><p>"Now," Natsu said, pulling a pink cover over her and Happy. She pushed it down so that it would <em>not <em>be on top of her head. "How about that story about that dragon you promised us last week?" His eyes are eager and wide, reminding her of a child's when they come down from the stairs on Christmas morning, to be greeted by the presents under the tree Santa brought them. It's endearing to her, that he wanted to hear her stories so much, even if they are mediocre at best. Happy nodded his agreement, and she settled more comfortably on her arm.

"Well," she chewed on the inside of her cheek, letting her gaze drift over her best friend's shoulder so that she could see the gently falling snow illuminated in the moonlight. It's nearing Christmas, and already she has presents from her guild mates . . . along with a few from admirers; she had put the flowers up on display in the windowsill, so that everyone could see them. Natsu kept shooting them odd looks though.

"Luuushyyy," Natsu drew her name out, rolling it on his tongue. She contemplated hitting him, before deciding it wasn't worth jostling Happy. The cat would complain, keeping her up all night long, and probably Natsu, which meant all of them would be at each other's hairs tomorrow. Not, of course, for any other reason.

"Alright, alright, you insatiable dragon," she said. His eyes seemed to _shine _brighter than a star, and she couldn't resist the urge to laugh. A bubbling feeling formed in her chest, and she poked him right in the middle of his forehead. "This is a story my mother taught me . . . . Coiled around the sky's North Pole, there is the celestial dragon: Draco. Hera, the queen of the gods, placed him up there—"

"What, why?"

She shot him a flat look, trying to convey her utmost disappointment in him. He tensed a little.

"_Anyway_," she cleared her throat. "He is a part of _The_ _Tree of the Summit,_ which was a part of the Celestial Seat of Judgment—"

"But aren't you always talking about a Spirit King? I thought the Celestial Realm wasn't a democracy!"

She would have yelled at him, except he used big words. The world was ending: Natsu Dragneel was actually using eloquent vocabulary. This time, _he _shot _her _a flat look and she realized she must have said that aloud. Oops.

"Anyway, The Tree of the Summit was guarded by the celestial serpent, which is another way to describe dragon, _Happy_. The constellation, the Ursa Minor, which contains the Polestar, Polaris, is now drawn enclosed on three sides by the coils of Draco, though formerly, it was almost entirely so. This pole, or the constellation Ursa Minor, was also imagined as a tree, and Draco, or the Dragon Ladon, is seen as guarding either the constellation Ursa Minor, or the tree in the garden of the Hesperides. Draco was the serpentine dragon that intertwined with the tree in the garden and watched over the golden apples."

Natsu shot her an unimpressed look, when she didn't speak for a while. "Is that the best dragon story you've got?"

She hit him, and Happy let out a soft hiss, probably annoyed at her sudden movements. Natsu flinched away from her, and she glared at him.

"Like you've got any better."

He scoffed. "Are you kidding? That's the _only _type of story I know: Igneel taught them all to me . . . to the point where I was so sick and tired of them that I started waking up thinking about the stupid things." He rolled his eyes, but a small, fond smile crossed his face. Abruptly, her anger at him faded, as she stared at the way his features softened. She hadn't noticed it before, but he was handsome in a rugged sort of way.

"Tell me one then," she found herself saying without really thinking about it. She wanted him to keep that expression on his face; it seemed so much more . . . _real_ than the bright grins he gifted everyone. His features screwed up, probably in remembrance.

"Hmm. Well, there is one about Draco, who stops the bears from meeting. Have you heard about it?"

She shook her head, and he sat up, a gleeful expression settling on his face.

"Really? But it's about the constellation Draco."

She popped herself up on an elbow, and looked at him. He grinned at her, and settled into a more comfortable position. She interlocked her fingers behind her head.

"Well, Igneel's version, which is the boring version, by the way, goes like this. _The twin bears are not set face to face: each with its muzzle points at the other's tail and follows one that follows it. Sprawling between them and embracing each, Draco the Dragon separates and surrounds them with its glowing stars lest they ever meet and leave their stations._" He rolled his eyes, but she found herself captivated by the way his eyes seemed to glow in the light, and how he used his hands. Who knew he was such a good orator?

"Are you even listening to me, Luce?" his eyes were narrowed at her as his arms were suspended in midair. She cringed then smiled sheepishly.

"Um . . . sorry Natsu, I'm listening now."

He flicked her nose.

"Now I gotta start over," he complained. "You better listen this time, Luce. Anyway, so, there are two bears and a dragon . . ."

And that was how she found herself telling him about Laden, the dragon who guarded the Golden Fleece and the Apples in the Hesperides' garden; about Draco, who was thrown at Minerva by the Giants when she fought them; about the dragon who was slain by Cadmus at Thebes.

She also found herself enraptured by his voice as he told her about the dragons who fought for eons over lands, raining fire upon the puny villages during the Great Dragon Wars. He told her about how the Great Dragon brought the sun up and vanquished the moon, about a red dragon with a forked tongue pointing in two different directions who comes down from the heavens, spreading lies.

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><p>She kicks him out of her house, early the next morning. He complains as usual as he and Happy enters through the front door anyway, then they set the table as she scrambles eggs and fries bacon for the three of them. None of them mention that friends don't sleepover nearly every other day, let alone cook something for the ones who break in, even though the thought lurks there, in the back of their minds.<p>

Eventually, a cycle begins to form. It's subtle, and she didn't notice it at first, but it's there. Every time after some traumatic mission, he and Happy would come over under the guise of Happy having nightmares, and then they would eventually stop coming over as much as the nightmares go away. She doesn't have the heart to break it, not when the nights he and Happy don't break into her house make her feel cold despite the fact it's usually warm in her room.

And maybe she likes it, just a little too. It is destructive, her feelings already becoming muddled between just best friends and something more, and it'll probably end up exploding in their faces at the most inopportune time, but she can't break it.

It doesn't cross her mind that this type of closeness between friends was wrong; not when it felt so right.


End file.
